Evaluating financial performance of insurance companies using rating transition matrices

YesFinancial performance of insurance companies is captured by changes in rating grades. An insurer is susceptible to a rating transition which is a signal depicting current financial conditions. We employ Rating Transition Matrices (RTM) to analyse these transitions. Within this context, credit quality can either improve, remain stable or deteriorate as reflected by a rating upgrade or downgrade. We investigate rating trends and forecast rating transitions for UK insurers. We also provide insights into the effects of the global financial crisis on financial performance of UK insurance companies, as reflected by rating changes. Our analysis shows a significant degree of rating changes, as reflected by rating fluctuations in rating matrices. We conclude that insurers with higher (better) rating grades depict rating stability over the long-run. An unexpected but interested finding shows that insurers with good rating grades are nevertheless susceptible to rating fluctuations. General insurers are more likely to be rated and they demonstrate higher levels of rating grade variations over the period studied. Using comparative rating transition matrices, we find more variations in rating movements in the post-financial crisis period. We also conclude that general insurers reflect less stable rating outlooks compared to life and general insurers

Evaluation of riverbank filtration in the removal of pesticides: an approximation using column experiments and contaminant transport modeling

Abstract: The potential of riverbank filtration in the removal of five pesticides commonly used in Colombia (atrazine, ametryn, carbofuran, diuron and propanil) was evaluated through a series of column experiments and solute transport modeling. The experiments consisted of two soil columns run under saturated regime, with sediments and water collected from the rivers Loessnitztal and Elbe (East Germany), respectively. Six experiments were performed at 10 and 20 °C, and the final concentrations of the pesticides were used to solve the one-dimensional advection–dispersion equation using an inverse approach. Variables such as retardation factor, first-order degradation coefficient, and dispersion coefficient were assessed for all the pesticides except propanil, which rapidly degraded in solution. The parameters obtained for one of the experiments were introduced into a groundwater flow model from the Loessnitztal site, and the code MT3DMS was used to simulate a contaminant pulse coming from the river. Four different scenarios were considered to determine the effect of adsorption and degradation on the fate of the pesticides. The results showed that, although the persistence of pesticides depends on the properties of each compound, a maximum of 30% removal was achieved during the column experiments, and a log removal of 9 through the numerical modeling. Because of the sensitivity of the fate of contaminants to sorption and degradation, field and laboratory work should be carried on to determine the removal coefficient of the dissolved and adsorbed phases of the compounds, the type of degradation to be expected, and the real values of longitudinal and transverse dispersivity. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]. © 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature